13 May 2015

By this time, everyone should be familiar with the way Blackwater Elite is handling its affairs in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA). Despite having a winning tradition in the PBA-Development League (PBA D-League), the Elites are nothing short of laughable in the pro league.

There were high expectations from this team when they joined the league late last year, but it was obvious that whatever competitive attitude they possessed, they threw it out of the window after securing the right to join the PBA. They were simply built to loose and nothing else.

It is not certain why the Office of the Commissioner is letting this team destroy the foundation of competitiveness, but there are speculations backed by circumstantial evidence that Blackwater is trying to lose games because they want to fulfill their twisted obligation as a ‘farm team’ of the Manny V. Pangilinan companies, notably Talk ‘N Text Tropang Texters.

Firstly, who in their right mind will trade their potential ‘franchise player’ in the 2015 Rookie Draft for a journeyman Larry Rodriguez and then later on cut him from their roster. In the end, the Elites got nothing substantial in return for their pick that could very well be the top one in the draft.

The team management of the Ever Bilena Cosmetics Inc. franchise finished at the bottom of the standings in both the Philippine Cup and Commissioner's Cup, giving them the best shot at the No. 1 pick overall under the re-formatted PBA rookie draft. The potential player that could give any team a good chance at winning right now coming from the draft is 6-foot-7 Moala Tautuaa.

Lastly, after finishing the Commissioner Cup with a 3-8 win-loss record, the management did nothing special to improve anything. They traded wingman Alex Nuyles in exchange for forward Riel Cervantes and then still brought back the error-prone and aging Marcus Douthit as their import. They even had the gall not to hire an Asian import even if the option was made available.

If Douthit can’t give them four wins when everyone else is fielding a single import during the Commissioner’s Cup, what made Blackwater think that he can improve further in the Governor’s Cup when other teams enjoyed having a second Asian import?

The Elite had two Asian import prospects during the break but Imad Qahwash of Jordan had a citizenship issue, while Taiwanese Lui Chen failed to get a release from his club in Chinese Taipei. Nevertheless, this should not have stopped the Elites from trying.

Did they really think that Brian Heruela, Chris Timberlake or Val Acuna are better than the likes of Park Sungjin (Korea), Yang Dong Geun (Korea) and Wesam Al-Sous (Jordan)? Well, what else can the Elites do if their true bosses ask them to tank their games?

And as usual, don't expect the League to do anything about this matter because the higher powers are benefiting from Blackwater's woe.

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PBA Advisory

2017 Commissioner's Cup Format

The tournament allows teams to hire foreign players or imports with a height limit of 6-foot-10.

The top 2 teams will earn twice-to-beat edges over Nos. 7 and 8 while the No. 3 against No. 6 and No. 4 versus No. 5 pairing will be a best-of-three affair in the quarterfinals.

The semifinal stage will have a pair of best-of-five matches and the finals will be a race-to-four affair.

Gilas Pilipinas

Manila will host one of the three tournaments in the 2016 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament. The Philippine national men’s basketball team will try to pull off massive upsets against France, New Zealand, Canada, Turkey and Senegal in the competition slated on July 5 to July 10 at Mall of Asia Arena.

A total of 18 teams will participate in the three-nation event whose champions will book tickets to the 2016 Rio Olympics.